Welcome to Bollywood

31 March 2017 |
12:33 pm

Inside Bollylomo’s funhouse

There’s nothing as liberating as laughter. We all go through life’s struggles and sometimes forget to take a second to breathe or indulge ourselves and the people around us in a moment of laughter. For Gbolahan Olatunde, popularly known as Bollylomo or Bolly, he naturally spends most of his time making people happy as an actor and comedian.

Bolly has created his own social media universe from his short videos on Instagram to his comical lifestyle on Snapchat and hosting events to becoming a media personality. A remarkable Bolly moment was when he shared an encounter where we saw a man slap someone in a police vehicle for scratching his Lamborghini. The clip went viral, leaving us all laughing in disbelief and wondering how he could capture this unusual event while maintaining his spin on it. He even joked about the car getting scratched just before it happened!

The Zanga Master

According to the comedian, “I was born here in Nigeria actually, but in my head I was born in Spain.” After completing his studies in marketing and finance in London, he moved back to Lagos, where he began chasing after his dreams in the entertainment industry. Guardian Life had a fun chat with Bolly, as he sheds some light on his background and inspirations.

How did you initially become interested in comedy? Was this the career path you planned?

Honestly, growing up I wanted to be more of an artist. I thought I was going to be the next D’Banj so I called myself “Zanga Master”. I was way too energetic growing up, but let’s just say music didn’t work. However, I was also very into acting, I did a lot of stage in my secondary school plays and noticed that people liked my acting and personality, so I just thought to myself, I am natural at this. I decided to infuse it into my day-to-day life as a presenter, actor and all round human being.

Give us a slight breakdown of your thought process when you come up with skits or jokes?

For me, I think comedy should be natural, which is why I don’t do a lot of stand-up comedy, or any at all. I don’t personally like scripted comedy. So, I just get a camera, and just allow the day’s plan to come together naturally, and you’d be surprised how much banter you can get from just living in Nigeria and being a Nigerian.

Do you have days when you really don’t want to be funny but you just have a job to do?

The thing about being a “funny guy” is that everyone expects you to be goofy and unserious, and sometimes they don’t just take you as serious. But being professional with work as soon as it’s job time, you always have to get in line. And as for me it comes naturally like I said earlier. There’s nothing like “unfunny days” unless maybe someone slapped me before the show.

Tell us about people you have worked with and would like to work with in the future?

So far, I am doing a lot more acting and my first movie just came out actually, Ojukokoro which has been getting rave reviews thankfully. However, I have also been filming a lot more things on the low and they will be coming out soon, one in particular I am excited about is a show with EbonyLife TV. As regards to who I want to work with, I would really like to work with Kemi Adetiba; big fan of hers and I think she’s awesome.

What are some interesting facts about yourself?

I think an interesting fact about me, is when I’m not out being a people’s person. I actually love my personal space in my room with some of my favourite movies.